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MovieMail's Review
Julian Upton delves into a forgotten London with these film from the 1950s and 60s.
London is not so much a location as a living, breathing character in this diversely fascinating collection. Indeed, although familiar landmarks appear, each film here presents the city in ways that are almost antithetical to the traditional travelogue usually favoured by mainstream cinema, and they largely eschew images of ‘swinging London’ so prevalent in the 60s and 70s.
Joan Littlewood’s Sparrows Can’t Sing (63), in which a demobbed James Booth comes home to find his bird (Barbara Windsor) shacked up with another man, attracted some criticism for its Cockney caricatures, but its vivid depiction of the East End has weathered better than many a stilted example of ‘social realism’. Littlewood’s slum streets are teeming with life, courtesy of her magnificent ensemble cast, and she reveals an eye for composition that makes you wish she’d directed more films.
Set in Soho’s underbelly, Ken Hughes’ The Small World of Sammy Lee (63) is a gutsy noir, featuring a tragi-comic tour-de-force from Anthony Newley as a down-at-heel-crook trying to escape a spiral of debt. Basil Dearden’s Pool of London (50) aims for a realistic view of the capital as the first Jamaican immigrants arrived, and sees black sailor Johnny (Earl Cameron) becoming entangled both in a romance with a white girl and in the criminal activities of his shipmate. An early fusion of the social issue and crime genres, Pool is further distinguished by its pioneering Thames-side location shooting.
Two unique shorts complete the collection. Norman Cohen’s The London Nobody Knows (67) is a fascinating visual document of a fading city, in which James Mason dolefully escorts us on a tour of some of its more unusual spots before they vanish completely. Douglas Hickox’s Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (69) touches the rim of ‘swinging London’ — a boy pursues the modish Judy Huxtable across Hampstead to an all-singing soundtrack — but it’s such a witty pastiche of Les parapluies de Cherbourg, and so beautiful in itself, we can forgive it for that.
In short, unless you want your London films to present wall-to-wall red buses and changings of the guard, this collection has something for everyone.
A set of six films that features diverse post-war London locations from the 1950s and 60s and which explore quintessentially London themes – from dockside interracial romance in the post-Windrush years, to heart-stopping chases through the streets of Soho or the labyrinthian Underground network.
Contains Pool of London (Dearden, 1951), The Small World of Sammy Lee (Ken Hughes, 1963), The Yellow Balloon (J. Lee Thompson, 1953), London Nobody Knows (1967), Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1965) and Sparrows Can't Sing (Joan Littlewood, 1963).
Pool of London: Into the Pool of London, the heart of the city’s Docklands, sails the Dunbar, fresh out of Rotterdam. Stepping ashore at Tower Bridge are two merchant seamen, one, Dan MacDonald (Bonar Colleano), a cocky and assertive ladies’ man who has a neat sideline in smuggling minor items ashore. The other: Johnny Lambert (Earl Cameron), a painfully shy, restrained Jamaican, is content to follow in Dan’s shadow. Before the ship’s departure, much water has passed down the river and a lot has happened to change these two men. Dan becomes fatefully involved with a gang of diamond smugglers who leave him in the frame as a murder suspect while Johnny meets a white girl (Susan Shaw) whose kindness so touches him he falls in love despite himself. Directed by Basil Dearden, the film marked a departure for Ealing from their usual fare and was notable in being the first British film to try and depict an interracial relationship in the post-Windrush years.
The Small World of Sammy Lee: Petty crook and chancer Sammy Lee (Anthony Newley) has five hours to try to raise the cash to pay off a gangster bookie and so avoid a heavy beating. A gripping race against the clock through the seedy streets of Soho ensues with Anthony Newley giving a restless and vital performance as Sammy: compère for a backstreet strip joint and inveterate gambler and horse player. He is followed in his grimly hilarious schemes to raise the money by the loyal, loving Patsy (Julia Foster). Recently arrived from the North, she naively takes Sammy’s flash offer of a job seriously. A sharp, snide commentary on the sleazy side of Soho, The Small World of Sammy Lee is shot in vivid black and white by experimental cinematographer Wolf Suschitzky and directed by Ken Hughes (Alfie Darling, The Trials of Oscar Wilde) from his BBC play. Also starring Wilfred Brambell, Derek Nimmo and Warren Mitchell.
The Yellow Balloon: A bombed out slum in London’s East End: two young boys are playing in the ruins when one takes a tragic fall. The second, Frankie (Andrew Ray), scrambles down to help but finds his friend dead of a broken neck. Hiding in the shadows is Len (William Sylvester), a petty thief using the neighbourhood as a hideout from the police. Manipulating Frankie’s shock and guilt he blackmails the boy into robbing his parents and acting as a decoy in a pub robbery to fund his escape. When the robbery goes wrong and Len’s excessive force kills the manager, Frankie is the only witness, and Len needs to tie up all loose ends. A heart-pounding chase through the Underground ensues with Frankie’s only hope a Good Samaritan (Kathleen Ryan) who tries to warn the Police of his plight. The Yellow Balloon was an early success for director J. Lee Thompson (Guns of Navarrone) and also starred Bernard Lee and Sid James in a very early role.
Shot in 1967, London Nobody Knows features James Mason giving the viewer a guided tour around arcane and then-little visited parts of London. Even more of a fascinating historical document now than it was on its release the film offers a rare and beautiful glimpse of London past. Locations explored include Islington’s Chapel Market, the tenements of Spitalfields and the ruins of the now-disappeared Bedford Theatre in Camden.
Another ode to the cityscapes of London, Les Bicyclettes de Belsize is a short film that follows the course of a relationship, mostly by bicycle around Hampstead Heath, begun when a man falls in love with a model after seeing her photograph. With little dialogue, the film is mainly musical, including the titular hit by Engelbert Humberdink.
Sparrows Can't Sing: Charlie returns to the East End after two years at sea to find his house demolished and wife Maggie gone. Everyone else knows she is now shacked up with married bus driver Bert and a toddler, and they all watch with more than a little interest at the trail of mayhem Charlie leaves as he goes about sorting things out.
